Naoto Kan

Naoto Kan (10 October 1946-) was Prime Minister of Japan from 8 June 2010 to 2 September 2011, succeeding Yukio Hatoyama and preceding Yoshihiko Noda. He was a member of the Democratic Party of Japan.

Biography
Naoto Kan was born in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan on 10 October 1946, and he graduated from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1970. He became a lawyer in 1971, and he engaged in civic grassroots movements. In 1980, he was elected to the National Diet as a social democratic politician, and he served as Health Minister in 1996; from 2009 to 2010, he occupied the positions of Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, Minister of State for National Strategy, Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy, and Deputy Prime Minister at the same time. In 2010, he was elected leader of the Democratic Party of Japan after Yukio Hatoyama's resignation, and he was the first Japanese prime minister to serve for over a year since Junichiro Koizumi in 2006. He resigned as the result of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, during which he called for an end to Japan's dependence on nuclear energy. Yoshihiko Noda succeeded him as Prime Minister.